Fuller Seminary will sell its 13-acre Pasadena campus and move to Pomona by 2021, President Mark Labberton announced this week.

According to the seminary’s website, the move is necessary because living in Pasadena is “so costly that it limits our ability to reach many potential students.”

Locations throughout the Greater Los Angeles area were considered, and Pomona was selected for a number of factors, including its diversity, proximity to top colleges and “significantly lower cost of living,” according to the website.

The seminary’s Pasadena campus currently serves about 1,200 students and 70 faculty, a spokesman said.

Pasadena Vice Mayor John Kennedy, who represents District 3 where Fuller Seminary is located, said in a phone interview that Fuller’s move will be “a huge loss” for the city of Pasadena.

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“I just wish them the best,” Kennedy said. “I hope that the City Council and city staff will work with whoever is going to be the purchaser of such a large swath of land in my district so that we can find the right development for that land.”

He hopes it will be “something that really benefits the community,” he said, but he could not comment further because he doesn’t have many details on the move.

Pomona Mayor Tim Sandoval, on the other hand, is thrilled with the news.

Pomona Mayor Tim Sandoval

Sandoval said by phone the seminary will result in an economic boon to the city, either through students who will frequent downtown restaurants, a future movie theater, and shops; or with staff looking to move to closer to work.

“That only increases our sales and property taxes,” he said. “This is a great asset to have in Pomona.”

Sandoval said he was brought into conversations with Fuller Seminary officials about 10 months ago.

“There has been an ongoing conversation with Fuller because they were interested in looking at Pomona as a possible site,” he said.

Although some might not immediately think of Pomona as a college town, Sandoval pointed out that with this move, the city will be home to three major educational institutions. Cal Poly Pomona is on the western edge of town while Western University of Health Sciences is downtown.

Sandoval would not reveal the specific location of the seminary’s new campus, only saying it would be in downtown Pomona.

Fuller Seminary spokesman Britt Vaughan said in a phone interview details of the specific downtown location aren’t yet public, but the campus will be smaller than the 13 acres it currently occupies in Pasadena.

“We’ve noticed a spike in our online education,” Vaughan said. “Distance learning students and online degrees have increased every quarter, and a majority of our students no longer come to campus.”

This new reality is part of the reason for the move, he said.

“When we build a new campus in Pomona, we can build a campus that fits those needs, and we can have a smaller footprint,” Vaughan said.

Fuller has yet to narrow down potential buyers for its Pasadena land, but Vaughan said the seminary will work with the city to determine the best fit.

The news follows an announcement last month that the William Carey International University, occupying 15 acres further north in Pasadena, is also selling its land.

Fuller Seminary has been a Pasadena institution since its founding in 1947, when classes were held in the Lake Avenue Congregational Church. The seminary moved to its current location at Oakland Avenue and Walnut Street in 1953.

In his Monday letter announcing the move, Labberton said the decision has been years in the making. He said some of the benefits coming out of the sale of the campus will be:

“A sizable increase” to the seminary’s endowment

The elimination of all debt

A “significantly” lower cost of living for faculty, staff, and students

Seed funding for state-of-the-art facilities

The letter did not elaborate on how much money the seminary expects to receive for the land.

“For the next three years, we gratefully remain in Pasadena,” Labberton said. “We are committed to leaving well by treating this place and its people with love and celebration. We have been blessed with a rich inheritance; now is the time to use it to expand the mission established by our founder, Charles Fuller, decades ago.

“Meanwhile, we will be designing and building a new campus for the next era of theological education and spiritual formation.”

Hayley Munguia covers Long Beach City Hall for the Southern California News Group. She previously worked as a data reporter for FiveThirtyEight and has written for The Week, the Jerusalem Post and the Austin American-Statesman, among other publications. She's originally from Austin, graduated from NYU and will pet a dog any chance she gets.

Liset Márquez covers the cities of Pomona, Claremont, La Verne and San Dimas for the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. A beat reporter for the Bulletin since 2006, she previously wrote for the Chattanooga Times Free Press. She keeps a watchful eye on city councils and the Dodgers.